Why Women Are So

“The author herself has characterized her book as ‘a first-hand study of the ordinary, orthodox, middle-class woman who has constituted the domestic type for more than a century,’ answering the question: ‘Is the characteristic behavior which is called feminine an inalienable quality or merely an attitude of the mind produced by the coercive habits of past times?’ As a working hypothesis she assumes that women have been ‘what men expected them to be,’ that ‘sex traditions rather than innate sex character have produced what is called “feminine” as distinguished from womanly behavior.’ Here is the old question and the modern hypothesis of much theorizing, but Dr. Coolidge has made a definite contribution to the subject by this intensive study. The body of her argument is presented in a rather exhaustive examination.” – Excerpt from the book review by Dr. Hannah B. Clark Powell, published in The American Journal of Sociology.

(The University of Chicago Press)